Five Bay Area Composers join forces to create a varied evening of new music for Five Instruments and Voice. Trios, Quartets, and Quintets are the exciting results
Five by Five presents five new compositions for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano and Voice by Bay Area Composers. John Beeman’s “Sprites” is inspired by an unusual weather phenomenon: sprites are immense flashes of red or blue lights that appear above thunderstorms; in Steve Mobia’s “Fissures” the title refers to sudden breaks in the thematic structures: “imagine a road with a smooth surface but occasional cracks that interrupt the forward momentum”; Allan Crossman presents two selections from his ballet “The Sleepless Beauty” (note the sleepless!); Alden Jenks presents a poem cycle, based on the poetry by Akiko Yosano, describing the arc of a woman’s experience from her earliest romantic impulses, through her passionate affair, its end, and her loneliness at the end.; Davide Verotta presents “Five Movements for Small Ensemble”, a moody piece that goes through different emotional landscapes and finds its true calling in the final driving movement. Played by Stephen Zielinski (clarinet), Jessie Nucho (flute), Maki Ishii Sowash (violin), Vicky Ehrlich (cello), Keisuke Nakagoshi (piano), and Shauna Fallihee (Soprano). Steed Cowart conducting.